Device for feeding a tape

ABSTRACT

A device for feeding a tape where a shaft carrying a spool for the tape is arranged to be turned intermittently, said shaft rotatably supporting a locking member and a stage member having mutually interacting locking means. Said stage member is connected to a mechanism for sensing the amount of tape wound up on the spool and is arranged to turn the shaft via the locking member and a toothed wheel gearing which comprises an orbiting gear wheel supported on the locking member.

United States Patent Lundstriim et al.

1451 Nov. 11, 1975 DEVICE FOR FEEDING A TAPE 3.371.883 3/1968 Hoffman 242/673 R 3.46U,776 8/1969 St' 1 242/( 7.5 X [75] mentors: Ingemar Lmdstmm 3.701.493 10/1972 w tflic l'i 1 242/6 75 x Johunneshov; Oswald Karl Gustav g l g Bundhagen both of Primary E.\'uminerEdward J. McCarthy 7 en Attorney Agent, or FirmCushman, Darby & [73] Assignee: Hugin Kassaregister AB, Stockholm, Cushmfln Sweden [22 Filed: June 19, 1974 [57] f f d ABSTRAChT f A device or ee ing a tape w ere a shut carrying a [21] Appl' 481l16 spool for the tape is arranged to be turned intermittently, said shaft rotatably supporting a locking mem 52 US. Cl 242/671 R her and a Stage member having mutually interacting [51] Int. Cl. B65H 17/02 locking meilns- Said Stage member is Conncted to a [58] Field Of Search......... 242/67.l R, 67.2, 67.3 R, mechanism for Sensing the 1111191111t p Wound p 343/ 75 0n the spool and is arranged to turn the shaft via the locking member and a toothed wheel gearing which [56] References Cited comprises an orbiting gear wheel supported on the UNITED STATES PATENTS IOCkmg member- 13171545 8/1913 Armstrong 242/675 4 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures 1 II III "2 ,27 3 HiL uuu 1| 1 IZF II TIIIUI 1| I Lllllllll lll lllllm 28 11 1% 9 J W a 9 I 33 3'1 US. Patent Nov. 11, 1975 Sheet10f2 3,918,656

FIG.1

II II $1115.. IIIIIII IIIIIIIII THIHJTTITW III US. Patent Nov. 11, 1975 Sheet 2 of2 3,918,656

FIG. 2

DEVICE FOR FEEDING A TAPE The present invention relates to a device for feeding a tape, especially an ink ribbon, in which device the tape is arranged to be wound up on a spool supported on a shaft which is arranged to be turned intermittently, said shaft supporting a locking member and a stage member which is turnable in relation to the shaft and the locking member, said locking member and stage member having mutually interacting locking means which are arranged to drive the locking member when the stage member is turned in one direction and which are arranged to disengage the stage member and the locking member from each other when the stage member is turned in the opposite direction, said stage member being hingedly connected to a mechanism for sensing the amount of tape wound up on the spool and being arranged to be set by said mechanism in an angular position corresponding to the amount of tape wound up on the spool, said stage member also being arranged to be driven by means of a drive means from a starting position defined by the amount of tape on the spool to an end position and to drive itself during this movement of the locking member.

It is previously known to use a mechanism of this type in feeding, for example, ink ribbons for cash registers. However, the thus obtained feeding is so great that the ink ribbon must be reeled forth and back several times before it has been completely used up. Amongst other things, this known system requires a special rewinding mechanism. Furthermore, the use of an expandable ribbon is unnecessarily uneconomical as only certain patches on theribbon will be used up.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate these disadvantages in a simple and reliable manner and to make possible the reduction of feeding in order to more effectively use the tape or ribbon while winding the same in only one direction.

This isachieved according to the invention in that the locking member is rotatable in relation to the shaft and is arranged to turn the same via a toothed wheel gearing when driven by the stage member. By means of this design, the advantages of being able to adapt the size of the turn to the amount of wound-up material are maintained at the same time as an appropriately large or small gear ratio can be selected. When it comes to ink ribbons, for example, it is desirable to have a great gear ratio, that is, obtain a slight turn of the shaft. However, in other connections it may be desirable to use a small gear ratio.

According to an especially advantageous embodiment, the toothed wheel gearing includes a gear wheel which is mounted on the locking member and is engaged with a gear wheel which is fixedly secured on the shaft and with a gear wheel which is stationarily mounted concentrically with the gear wheel of the shaft and which has a number of teeth which differs from the number of teeth on the gear wheel of the shaft. Said stationarily mounted gear wheel can have more or fewer teeth than the gear wheel on the shaft. In this manner an extremely simple, highly functional arrangement is obtained which takes up little space and which makes it possible to feed the tape a desired step with great precision.

The invention is described in more detail below with the help of an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings in which FIG. I shows a view of an arrangement according to the invention as seen from above and FIG. 2 shows a section along line IIlI in FIG. 1.

According to FIG. I a spool l is rotatable journalled on a shaft 2 which is journalled in side plates 3 and 4 in a frame 5. The spool 1 is fixedly secured on the shaft 2 and is intended to wind up a tape or ribbon 6 by means of turning the shaft 2, said tape 6 being, for example, an ink ribbon or some other type of tape.

The winding onto the spool l is regulated with the help ofa feed mechanism 7 which is essentially situated on that side of the side plate 3 which faces away from the spool l. The feed mechanism has the function of obtaining an intermittent, slight winding up of the tape 6 on the spool.

A majority of the parts included in the feed mechanism are shown in FIG. 2. The shaft 2 fixedly supports a gear wheel 8 which is engaged with a smaller gear wheel 9 which is journalled on a stud 10 which is attached to a locking member 11, here in the form of a locking disc. The locking disc 11, which is rotatably journalled on the shaft 2, is provided with locking teeth 12 around its periphery. A stage member 13, here in the form of a stage disc, is rotatably journal-led on the shaft 2 behind the locking disc 11. The stage disc supports an upper pawl 15 on a pin 14, said pawl 15 being held against the locking teeth 12 on the locking disc 11 by means of a spring 16, the other end of which is attached to the stage disc 13. One end of a tension spring 18 is attached to a tip 17 on the stage disc 13, the other end of said spring 18 being attached to the side plate 3 in such a manner that it attempts to turn the stage disc in a clockwise direction around the shaft 2. A lower pawl 20 is journalled on a pin 19 which is mounted on the side plate 3, said lower pawl 20 being held against the locking teeth 12 on the locking disc 11 by means of a spring 21.

Between the shaft 2 and the tip 17 the stage disc 13 supports a pin 22 around which one end of an arm 23 is journalled, the opposite end of said arm 23 being connected to an arm 24 by means of ajoint. A shaft 25, which is journalled in the side plates 3 and 4, fixedly supports the arm 24 as well as a sensor 26 which senses the amount of tape which has been wound up on the spool l and which also has the function of adjusting the stage disc 13 via a shaft 25 and arms 24 and 23 so that a suitably large feeding movement is obtained. Consequently, the size of the feeding movement decreases as the amount of wound up tape increases, and vice versa. A driven gear wheel 28, which is journalled on a shaft 27 in side plate 3, is provided with a stud 29 which is intended to interact with an edge surface 30 on the stage disc in a certain position during the rotation of the gear wheel so as to thereby turn said stage disc 13 from the position set by the sensor 26.

As can be seen in FIG. 1 a retainer plate 31 is attached to the side plate 3 and is parallel to the same by means of attachment means 32. A gear wheel 33 is fixedly mounted coaxially with shaft 2 on that side of the retainer plate which faces the gear wheel 8. Like gear wheel 8, the gear wheel 33 interacts with gear wheel 9 on the locking disc 11.. In order to obtain good centering between gear wheel 8 and 33, the outer end of shaft 2 extends a bit into gear wheel 33.

When a feeding movement is begun, the stud 29 assumes the position 29a shown with a broken line in FIG. 2 simultaneously as the stage disc assumes the position 13a which is also illustrated with a broken line and which is defined by means of the sensor 26 contacting the tape on spool 1. The upper pawl is now engaged with the locking teeth 12 on the locking disc 11 and, when gear wheel 28 is turned clockwise in the direction shown by arrow 34, the pawl 15 will drive the locking disc 11 when the stage disc 13 turns clockwise due to the movement of the stud 29. The gear wheel 9 will orbit the fixed gear wheel 33. Because the number of teeth being greater on the gear wheel 33 than on the gear wheel 8, the shaft 2 will be turned a smaller angle than the stage disc 13 and the locking disc 11. The gear wheel 8 can, for example, have 19 teeth while the gear wheel 33 can have teeth. In this way it will be possible to turn the shaft 2 a considerably smaller angle than if the locking disc 11 were fixed on the shaft 2. Previously, the spacing of the locking teeth 12 determined the smallest possible turn but a substantially smaller turn can now be effected with no change in the spacing of the teeth.

When feeding is completed, that is, when the stud 29 glides off the edge surface 30, the spring 18 pulls back the stage disc 13 simultaneously as the lower pawl 20 locks the locking disc 11. This movement ceases when the sensor 26 once again contacts the tape on the spool The embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 can, of course, be modified in various respects and it is, for example, possible to alter the number of teeth on the gear wheels, if necessary. It is also possible to use, with maintained effect, a gear having another construction. For example, a toothed wheel gearing having more gear wheels can be used. Nor is it necessary to mount the spool 1 directly on the shaft 2. Rather, a removable spool can be used. Naturally, the remaining composite parts of the device can also be formed in a plurality of other ways. Naturally, the above-described device is not restricted to use for ink ribbon feeding. Rather, said device can also be used in, for example, feeding of filter sheets in filtering plants, or in a number of other connections.

What we claim is:

1. A device for feeding a tape, especially an ink ribbon, in which device the tape is arranged to be wound up on a spool supported on a shaft which is arranged to be turned intermittently, said shaft supporting a locking member and a stage member which is turnable in relation to the shaft and the locking member, said locking member and stage member having mutually interacting locking means cooperating to drive the locking member when the stage member is turned in one direction and cooperating to disengage the stage member and the locking member from each other when the stage member is turned in the opposite direction, said stage member being hingedly connected to a mechanism for sensing the amount of tape wound up on the spool and being coupled to said mechanism so as to be set in an angular position corresponding to the amount of tape wound up on the spool, a drive means operating to drive said stage member from a starting position defined by the amount of tape on the spool to an end position, the stage member cooperating during this movement with the locking member to drive the locking member, characterized in that the locking member is rotatable in relation to the shaft and is coupled to the shaft via a toothed wheel gearing so as to turn the shaft when driven by the stage member.

2. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that a gear wheel, which is journalled on the locking member, is included in the toothed wheel gearing, said gear wheel being engaged with a gear wheel which is fixedly secured on the shaft and with the gear wheel which is stationarily mounted concentrically with the gear wheel of the shaft and which has a number of teeth which differs from the number of teeth on the gear wheel of the shaft.

3. A device according to claim 2, characterized in that the stationarily mounted gear wheel has more teeth than the gear wheel on the shaft.

4. A device according to claim 2, characterized in that the stationarily mounted gear wheel has fewer teeth than the gear wheel on the shaft. 

1. A device for feeding a tape, especially an ink ribbon, in which device the tape is arranged to be wound up on a spool supported on a shaft which is arranged to be turned intermittently, said shaft supporting a locking member and a stage member which is turnable in relation to the shaft and the locking member, said locking member and stage member having mutually interacting locking means cooperating to drive the locking member when the stage member is turned in one direction and cooperating to disengage the stage member and the locking member from each other when the stage member is turned in the opposite direction, said stage member being hingedly connected to a mechanism for sensing the amount of tape wound up on the spool and being coupled to said mechanism so as to be set in an angular position corresponding to the amount of tape wound up on the spool, a drive means operating to drive said stage member from a starting position defined by the amount of tape on the spool to an end position, the stage member cooperating during this movement with the locking member to drive the locking member, characterized in that the locking member is rotatable in relation to the shaft and is coupled to the shaft via a toothed wheel gearing so as to turn the shaft when driven by the stage member.
 2. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that a gear wheel, which is journalled on the locking member, is included in the toothed wheel gearing, said gear wheel being engaged with a gear wheel which is fixedly secured on the shaft and with the gear wheel which is stationarily mounted concentrically with the gear wheel of the shaft and which has a number of teeth which differs from the number of teeth on the gear wheel of the shaft.
 3. A device according to claim 2, characterized in that the stationarily mounted gear wheel has more teeth than the gear wheel on the shaft.
 4. A deVice according to claim 2, characterized in that the stationarily mounted gear wheel has fewer teeth than the gear wheel on the shaft. 